The Bocas Lit Fest, the largest literary festival in the Anglophone Caribbean, tries to capture Walcott’s enduring legacy in this official statement:

Walcott has been an overwhelming presence for three generations of Caribbean writers, and his influence is manifold. He was a master of the language, and proved beyond doubt that English is the property of no single nation or culture. He had a fierce and almost religious devotion to the landscape of his native St. Lucia and the broader Caribbean, which he immortalised in his lines and metaphors. He believed it was the job of poets to give names to the places, people, and things which history had rendered anonymous, and he emboldened other poets to do the same.

[Walcott] showed that even the most humble village on a tiny island on the fringes of the world could be a place of epic beauty and significance, written into his poems.

His masterful epic poem ‘Omeros’ is the embodiment of that and is one of the great works of world literature. He challenged orthodoxies and wielders of power, throwing down the gauntlet to younger writers.

Above all, he was the living proof that one of us — born in tiny Castries, educated in Kingston, living and working in Port of Spain — could become one of the great poets of all time, writing from the circumstances of everyday life.

He self-published his first book of poems at age 19, with financial support from his mother to cover the costs of printing. His most recent work, ‘Morning, Paramin’ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016) was a collaboration with Scottish painter Peter Doig, marrying poetry with painting. It was critically acclaimed by The New York Review of Books’ Julian Lucas as work that uplifts Walcott’s eternal concerns of reclamation, re-visioning and the astonishment of regarding Caribbean vistas:

The poems are suffused with twilight, but the dominant register is celebration, delight in the fresh eyes of a painter whom Walcott addresses much as Shakespeare does the young man of the sonnets: with an injunction to preserve beauty in the world, to produce and reproduce, perhaps even to inherit.

The region’s scholars, students, readers, playgoers, poets and educators have been plunged into mourning. A profusion of tributes on social media and in traditional news outlets has echoed forth, underscoring the influence of Walcott’s body of work to individuals, organizations, movements and courses of study.

In an official tribute, The Poetry Society quotes Karen McCarthy Woolf’s review of ‘Morning, Paramin’, which describes Walcott’s legacy as “one that has enriched the language and discourse through which the reader might embrace the region’s history and resilience as a hybridised environment.”

Outside of the region, plaudits from the international writing and reading community are also pouring in, focusing on the collective mastery of Walcott’s language; the dedication of his investment in Caribbean poetics; the breathtaking range of his devotions to rendering a landscape and the people within it.

The Guardian’s official obituary quotes Walcott’s own words about his artistic and personal self-perception to galvanise the rootedness of the poet in his particular, unapologetic moorings:

The division of black theatre and white theatre still goes on, and I don’t wish to be a part of any one of those definitions. I’m a Caribbean writer.

Walcott's career was not without controversy, however. His candidacy, in 2009, for the prestigious post of Oxford Professor of Poetry, came to an abrupt end after sexual harassment allegations from more than two decades earlier were brought to the attention of the university. The woman who eventually secured the post resigned mere days into her tenure when it was revealed that she had been the whistleblower.

As tributes to Sir Derek Walcott’s life, work and legacy continue to flood global message boards, online forums and the public sphere, mourners are encouraged to take his books down from their shelves, and open them to their most beloved poems, celebrating in verse the sublime and majestic presence of Walcott, irreducible by death.

Despite the fact that most Caribbean territories have been independent from Great Britain for decades — some of them for more than half a century — the mother country continues to wield a curious influence over its former colonies.

Most regional territories, still members of the Commonwealth, follow the United Kingdom's political and judicial systems, for instance. Cricket is a hugely popular sport. People drive on the left side of the road, attach value to speaking “the Queen's English” and in many cases are captivated by all things royal, so there is some measure of excitement surrounding Prince Harry's impending visit to the Caribbean — except when it comes to a popular hashtag.

On Twitter, #NotMyPrince describes itself as an “anti-colonial welcoming committee for Prince Harry […] resisting against the colonization of the Caribbean mind”. The aim, according to the project's Tumblr, lies in “breaking the bonds of empire”.

The prince's tour is scheduled to start in Antigua on November 20, 2016. Over the course of two weeks, he will also visit St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Guyana and Barbados, where he is due to meet Barbados-born superstar Rihanna.

One of #NotMyPrince's content creators, Nalini Mohabir, finds the whole thing ironic. She posted several tweets with the hashtag in order to bring other social media users into the discussion surrounding colonialism and Caribbean identity:

Prince Harry who used racial slur against fellow soldier (called him a Paki) is visiting Guyana (w/ pop over 40% South Asian heritage) https://t.co/v15iPIV4RJ

In 2009, a video emerged of Prince Harry joking around with his Sandhurst collegaues, one of whom he referred to as “our little Paki friend”. There was outrage at his use of the derogatory term, even though the prince may not have intended it as an insult.

In 2015, Barbados’ prime minister, Freundel Stuart, announced that by November 2016, he wanted to make “little England” — the country has long been viewed as the most colonial in the archipelago — a republic, replacing the Queen with a ceremonial president as head of state. Mohabir may have been referring to this when she asked:

Why is it necessary for the to have any symbolic, ceremonial or constitutional role in the 21st century Caribbean?

While Prime Minister Stuart has been using decolonisation rhetoric, it appears the country has come no closer to installing a president over the queen, prompting #NotMyPrince to tweet about the subject.

By quoting several accomplished West Indians — from former presidents to writers — #NotMyPrince was keen on making the point that this is not a new storyline; that Caribbean people have been singing the same song for decades:

Prince Harry has recently made headlines for dating mixed race actress Meghan Markle. In an unprecedented move, Kensington Palace released an official statement which warned the paparazzi that “a line has been crossed” and criticised the media's treatment of the prince's new girlfriend.

#NotMyPrince cleverly used the actress’ own words to make its case:

Meghan Markle, Prince H's gf: “You create the identity you want for yourself, just as my ancestors did when they were given their freedom”

Screencap from the website for the upcoming AWID Black Feminisms Forum (BFF), scheduled to take place in Brazil in September 2016.

Bloggers from the Caribbean-based feminist blog CODE RED will be a content partner at the Black Feminisms Forum, due to take place in Brazil this September. The forum hopes to bring people together to strategise for human — including women’s — rights, economic and environmental justice, and peace. It is an important aspect of the forum that “traditionally underrepresented or marginalised communities will have a strong presence”, including youth, women of colour, indigenous women, sex workers, transgender and migrant activists, and women with disabilities.

In the lead-up to the event, CODE RED has been hosting a blog carnival, encouraging participation from writers, artists, activists, and other thinkers to consider themes like state violence and healing justice as they relate to black feminism. There's even a #blackfeminisms hashtag on Twitter.

The response has been good thus far, with several netizens retweeting information, raising awareness about the forum and contributing their ideas. Joan Joy Grant Cummings, a Caribbean Canadian activist, wrote about black feminism and international solidarity. She recalled her experience as the first black woman President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) — which was, at the time, the premier Canadian feminist lobby group. In 1998, after police attacked peaceful, black communities in Colombia, Cummings was asked to be one of nine tribunal members investigating the tragedy. Cummings writes:

The Tribunal’s job was to establish the facts and determine who bore responsibility for one of 198 documented massacres that took place in Colombia during that year.

The prosecuting attorney presented the evidence that on May 16th and 17th 1998, at least 30 heavily-armed men made an incursion to the oil-producing city of Barrancabermeja, killing up to 32 people. Though the head of the death squad had informed the police that he was responsible for conducting the massacre he was never charged. […]

After reading the verdict, I was overwhelmed by the reaction of the people – it was as if multiple floodgates had burst their banks. It was the first anniversary of the massacre. People cried with sadness, grief, joy, vindication – “the rest of the world believed them”. This Tribunal triggered many more across the world much to the embarrassment of both Governments – Canada and Colombia.

She would later return to work with the communities:

Afro-Colombians had gone through intense displacement within Colombia. They had been subjected to all kinds of violations -kidnappings, murders, massacres, and ultimately driven off their land by paramilitary forces. Even though Law 70 which had been passed, was ostensibly to guarantee their protection and that of their land. According to a number of Afro-Colombian activists in the community, it may be the closest to self-determination they would achieve. […]

Throughout the 2 weeks I was there, I participated in community meetings about the struggle, nearly every sentence mentioned Law 70. Here was the law that should protect the rights of Afro-Colombians. Yet the government that passed the law was violating it directly and indirectly by facilitating groups that ignored the law!

Cummings explained how it all turned out:

Over a decade later it was revealed that 22 businessmen and Chiquita Bananas had taken ‘illegal’ possession of their land for business. Chiquita Bananas admitted, that between 1997-2004, it had paid USD 2M to paramilitary forces to remove Afro-Colombians. By accounts (El Tiempo) the 22 were prosecuted by the Colombian Government in 2010.

Yet, here we are in 2016, back to herding the community off its land — again!

As Black feminists we know that there really is only one feminist imperative — the struggle for the equality rights of all which includes the destruction of patriarchy, racism, white supremacy, heterosexism, capitalism etc…

In another post, CODE RED addressed a controversial statement made by the Bahamian legislator Richard Lightbourn, who recently proposed that “the country adopt legislation that mandates unwed mothers with more than two children have their ‘tubes tied’ in an effort to curtail the country’s social ills”, saying:

Anti-black racism thrives in majority black countries.

The legislator is suggesting the erasure of poor black Bahamians via the misogynist practice of forced sterilisation. […]

Violating women’s rights doesn’t prevent crime and poverty. It is a crime!

Legislators are supposed to be doing the tough work of making societies more equitable not arguing that they way to reduce poverty is for poor black people not to exist!

The blog also dealt with the issue of sexual violence against young women in the Caribbean, citing rape charges against the brother of Trinidad-born singer Nikki Minaj, an off-colour episode of a popular Trinidadian series that portrayed young women as sexual predators, and the attempt by a St. Lucian government official to ban a 10-year-old rape victim from attending school:

Do we ever question why we are so quick to condemn and shame girls who have been raped but can’t insist that men NOT rape children? Why is it so difficult to hold men accountable for their actions? Why so difficult to make rape unconscionable? Why would we rather believe that schoolgirls are more predatory and powerful than men than call a rapist a rapist?

In preparation for the black feminisms forum, CODE RED will continue to be a hub for sharing other perspectives about the challenges of gender justice for women of colour. You can keep track of new entries — and submit your own contribution — here, or follow the discussion on Facebook and Twitter.

West Indies Cricket Medal, with the original crest of the West Indies Cricket Board of Control. The ‘Control’ was dropped from its official name in 1996, but many would argue that the organisation still hangs on to the sentiment in terms of its behaviour towards the players. Photo by Mark Morgan, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Caribbean cricket fans had a lot to celebrate this week, what with the two outstanding wins in the recent T20 (short for Twenty20 cricket, a short version of the game) tournament in Kolkata, India. The region's women's team beat Australia in the final for its maiden title, while the ‘Windies’ men — a blend of ‘West Indies’, since it comprises players from various regional territories — as the team is popularly called, powered through to an exciting four-wicket win over England.

The jubilation coming out of the regional blogosphere was intense. The Caribbean loves its cricket, but in recent years, cricket has not really loved it back — the West Indies cricket team has been mired in controversy for some time now, with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) coming under heavy fire by the players for alleged mismanagement.

West Indies cricketer Dwayne Bravo playing at the World Twenty20 Super8s: West Indies v South Africa @ The Oval, 2009. Photo by JJ Hall, used under a CC BY-NC 2.0 license.

This week's triumphs have only served to rub salt in the gaping wound of lost trust between the WICB and the players, but really, all the signs were there since that ill-fated tour of India.

Enter the West Indies Players’ Association, led by Jamaican cricketer Wavell Hinds. The association proudly claims to be “the voice” of West Indian cricket players — except that 14 out of the 15 players that won the T20 tournament have vehemently stated that the association does not represent them, undermining the organisation's legitimacy in negotiating their contracts.

With a lack of confidence in Hinds’ leadership — especially after he agreed to a slash in players’ fees without due consultation with the cricketers themselves — the situation has reached an impasse. The players want to negotiate directly with the WICB, and the board's position is that the players’ association is the authorised negotiating body.

Darren Sammy, who captained the winning T20 team, playing at the Prime Ministers 11 Cricket match in Canberra 2010. Photo by NAPARAZZI, used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Dwayne Bravo has once again taken a stand, calling the WICB “the most unprofessional board in the world”, and its president, Dave Cameron, “immature”, “small-minded” and “arrogant”, “at war” with the West Indies cricket players.

T20 captain Darren Sammy was also scathing in his post-win remarks, accusing the WICB of a lack of support — the team allegedly didn't even have proper uniforms — but noting that the challenges strengthened the squad's resolve:

We started this journey … we all know we had … people were wondering whether we would play this tournament. We had a lot of issues, we felt disrespected by our board, [cricket columnist] Mark Nicholas described our team as a team with no brains. [Nicholas subsequently gave a heartfelt apology]. All these things before the tournament just brought this team together. […]

Sammy also thanked the heads of CARICOM, an organization for regional cooperation, for their messages of support. “…and I'm yet to hear from our own cricket board. That is very disappointing,” he said.

Public opinion is decidedly anti-WICB

Most Caribbean social media users are of the opinion that the WICB board should go. In fact, there is an online petition circulating to that effect (thus far it has garnered nearly 6,500 signatories), which refers to the 2015 recommendation of the CARICOM Cricket Review Panel, which “strongly recommends the immediate dissolution of the West Indies Cricket Board and the appointment of an Interim Board whose structure and composition will be radically different from the now proven, obsolete governance framework.”

Are the West Indies cricket team fighting to be crowned as the world’s best Twenty20 outfit because of the mechanisms of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)? Or should that be despite the mechanisms of the WICB?

He went on to explain the role of the WICB:

The role of the administrator certainly influences what happens on the pitch but it won’t be measured by match winning shots or game turning bowling performances.

The administrator’s job is essentially to give the team under their care the best possible chance of success. Or, to put it another way, to take away any excuse that outfit might have for non-performance.

It was the job of Cameron and his Board—not [the West Indies Players’ Association]’s, although they do have their part to play—to ensure Sammy and his crew went to India in the right frame of mind for success.

Did they?

Many well-respected cricketing figures are standing solidly with the West Indies players including legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who tweeted after the match:

WI players emerged true champions overcoming challenges on & off the field. West Indian Board should support them & address their concerns.

Fans have also been expressing their support of the team. On Facebook, Serenity Akosua Fletcher wrote of the T20 win:

I hope this is the first step to many of us as we stop vilifying players on behalf of WICB who refuse to act in the interest of players, fans and the regional game in a whole. The WICB represents the self-interest, corrupt kind of governance that rules our countries and gets away with it because of our respect for positions.

Let us not allow the West Indies Cricket Board to intimidate our players for speaking their mind. The historic victories didn't come from bureaucrats of the WICB, it came from the players they clearly want to muzzle.

Let us stand by the teams and the players who generated such pride for us as Caribbean people.

Following a statement from the WICB reprimanding Sammy on his unflattering comments about the lack of board support after the T20 win, Facebook user Akhir Hafiz Bacchus defended the West Indies captain, saying:

Indeed Sammy has spoken the truth and every west indies cricket fan along with every head of government of the Caribbean should throw their support behind him. Thump up to you Darren Sammy for leading our guys to victory during those crucial times in light of not being supported by the corrupted WICB.

Global Voices (GV): Tell us about your work in Jamaica. What is occupying your time, right now?

Vladimir Lucien (VL): As the 2016 Writer in Residence, I teach a weekly Creative Writing session at the Department of Literatures in English. I just arrived in Jamaica in mid-January, and this is my first visit here, so I am getting to know the place. I am participating in a number of events, including the Kingston Book Festival [March 5 – 12], which I am looking forward to. This month there is a lot happening on campus, including the Bob Marley Lecture [presented this year by Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James]. I will also be reading at the Calabash International Literary Festival [June 3 – 6] in St. Elizabeth. That will mark the end of my time here as Writer in Residence. Ending on a high note!

GV: Do you have time to write?

VL: Yes, I have time to write, and this is very valuable. In fact, as soon as I arrived here I started writing a novel. It is an enjoyable experiment. Basically though, I am a storyteller. And I feel — I am almost afraid — that if I don't continue to write, it is a gift that can be taken away at any moment. For a long time, I have wanted to write a narrative. I am very much drawn to magical realism, as a way to comprehend the world we're living in. Kamau Brathwaite discussed this in his book “MR” [2002], which inspired me. By the way, I am simultaneously writing a memoir and a book on aesthetics. Writing is a project for me.

GV: It sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Do you read a great deal, and what inspires you?

VL: I wanted to write prose because I have always been an avid reader of prose — Jamaican writers such as Roger Mais and Marlon James, for example. I also enjoyed reading Diana McCaulay's “Huracan.” Two novels I especially treasure are Gabriel García Márquez’ “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and George Lamming's “In the Castle of My Skin.” After I read them I was actually upset at finishing them. I found myself actually missing the characters and wanting to know what they were doing! European philosophers like Nietzsche, Foucault, Henri Bergson; and an anthropologist named Talal Asad have all influenced my thinking.

GV: You are a poet; you are from St. Lucia. So, you are inevitably asked about the influence of Derek Walcott. What are your thoughts?

VL: In a recent blog post, I tried to answer this question — and I totally understand why people ask it. There is the great looming figure of Derek Walcott, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. When I first started writing poetry at the age of eighteen, I mimicked his work. But no — neither I nor other St. Lucian poets such as Kendel Hippolyte and Jane King have become carbon copies of him, nor am I now influenced by him. We respect Walcott as our heritage. We must recognize the largeness of our past, but I see myself as wanting to break it down, an iconoclast. There is an intimate circle of literati in St. Lucia; we are all different from each other, and we are all different from Walcott. He is industrious; as I wrote in my blog, he got his work done. He also made me recognize the importance of metaphor and image; and there is of course rhythm and visual imagination in his work too, that imbues St. Lucian poetry. Another St. Lucian writer, John Robert Lee, dedicated a poem to Walcott (“Lusca”).

Vladimir Lucien at his residence on the UWI Mona campus. Photo courtesy Emma Lewis, used with permission.

GV: You are an active blogger. What is your feeling about the impact of social media and blogging on your writing?

VL: I find blogging specifically to be a platform where I can write with a certain degree of abandon. Academic writing — which I am currently engaged in, alongside the novel — and even interacting with people and issues via Facebook and Twitter do not allow this freedom. With blogging there is no issue of ‘trending’ or ‘likes’ and all of that which can become a sort of measure of value. When I blog I really start with the assumption that I have no audience, but then there is a certain compulsion towards blogging on a current issue, as if I am producing my own little essays. So I use that compulsion to blog (to be part of all the online activity) while retaining the sense of privacy that the essay has, the sense of independence of vision. The other thing that it gives you is it influences the way you write, makes you write as if for an audience. So you are writing charmingly, you are writing to make your point but also to entertain. It makes a pretty interesting product at the end.

GV: Where is “home” to you? Do you regard yourself as a St. Lucian writer or a Caribbean writer, primarily?

VL: St. Lucia is home. And so is Trinidad, where my wife comes from. So I move quite a bit between the two. But you know, there is a particular place in St. Lucia I have in mind, a town called Monchy, and it is where my mother's family comes from. I went to school there. It is a special place — my reality. Overall though, I do see myself as a Caribbean writer. I write for all the Caribbean.

GV: What do you think about the current state of Caribbean literature?

VL: Caribbean literature nowadays is very much a mixed bag. I am concerned that Caribbean writing is being seen as a category, or a ‘brand’ — a form of cultural social capital in the world. It is a brand that makes a writer unique. I think it is several Caribbeans that we are seeing.

GV: Are religion and spirituality important to you and to your work?

VL: Well, I was brought up as a Catholic, most St. Lucians are Catholic. Now, our five-year-old son is the only Christian in the house! But I am beginning to understand that there are ‘several paths to market’. I have also realized that there is a kind of neutral, amoral force that we are not in control of. It is hurricane-like — we cannot ensnare it. In my writing, I am always [trying] to work out a way to not be completely ‘in charge’. I want to move people spiritually with my writing — to create an experience that is hard to articulate — just as Machel Montano does. He knows how to move a crowd. So I would say spirituality is important to me. I would also say I am an independent thinker, and I am unapologetic about that.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2016/02/15/an-unapologetic-independent-thinker-a-conversation-with-st-lucian-poet-vladimir-lucien/feed/1Was a Popular Saint Lucia Blog Taken Down by Google Hateful or Just Outspoken?https://globalvoices.org/2014/09/16/was-popular-saint-lucia-blog-hateful-or-just-outspoken/
https://globalvoices.org/2014/09/16/was-popular-saint-lucia-blog-hateful-or-just-outspoken/#commentsTue, 16 Sep 2014 13:28:30 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=488217

Writer and actor Jason Sifflet's popular Saint Lucia-based Flogg Blog was taken down by Google for violating its terms of service before being restored last week. The no-holds-barred, muckraking blog had become both notorious and controversial among people interested in local politics.

4am SATURDAY, AUGUST 30: When the other NEG left the tower, I went back to my mocambo and got out my cyber-drum. Imagine my surprise to find that GOOGLE had burnt my cyber-fort THE FLOGG BLOG to the ground. No warning. No prior notification. Just an email saying:

Sifflet, still considered an enfant terrible despite a career that spans nearly two decades, had a dedicated following and The Flogg Blog's sudden demise has been a major topic of discussion in both mainstream and social media on the Caribbean island, with much speculation on what motivated the blog's removal. The Flogg Blog's contents ranged from investigative reporting to acerbic satirical pieces, all written in a freewheeling, profane style which was usually leavened with profanity. Sifflet's blog included investigations into mismanagement at several statutory boards, including the Saint Lucia Tourist Board, which were particularly controversial.

Sifflet discussed The Flogg Blog and his career in a lengthy interview a few days before the blog was taken down:

The Streisand effect is the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose 2003 attempt to suppress photographs of her residence in Malibu, California inadvertently generated further publicity of it.

If Jason Sifflet's FloggBlog had been popular before last Saturday, the take down from the Google servers because of a purported ‘HATE’ report has only increased its popularity and an unquenched desire, by all and sundry, to read it from end to end in an attempt to decipher who is behind such a dastardly deed. Nevertheless, the conclusion by everyone and their dog is that it was perpetrated by some stinking politician because it certainly wasn't by Fidel Castro! They're just all confused as to which one.

Williams added that Sifflet has merely exposed the topics that many Saint Lucians already discuss privately:

The Flogg Blog has shaken things up in St. Lucia. Even though it was not articulated in mainstream media, much of what Jason wrote has been thought of and discussed by many St. Lucians. They talked about the Flogg Blog at work, on Facebook, in emails, some mother-floggers even stayed up late at night unable to sleep because of the details and damning information contained within.

A series of recent posts on the Flogg Blog sharply critiqued the St. Lucian tourism industry, discussing such topics as high level corruption, crime, money laundering and bluntly stating that it is creating an apartheid like system on the island. Heavy stuff, no doubt – but it was excellent, much needed stuff. You do not find this kind of pointed critique in The Star, The Voice or the Mirror. This is because one would be a fool to think that the mainstream media in St. Lucia or anywhere else is divorced from power. It acts as little more than public relations for the power – allowing critique to fall within a very narrow, previously agreed upon spectrum. Go outside of that and you are in trouble. See Jason Sifflet as Exhibit A.

He continued:

What we are seeing with the case of the Flogg Blog is that the interpretation of what constitutes hate speech is actually violating freedom of speech on the island and the wider internet in general. Whether or not you agree with the Flogg Blog – that is not the point – it is that his right to say it is under attack.

An important part of the definition of hate speech is that it ‘intimidates a protected individual or group’. Protected individual or group? Who is being protected from who? The powerful are being protected from the people? You don’t say!

The right to free speech DOES NOT exist between two private actors such as between two persons or two companies or any combination thereof. So you do not have a right to say whatever you like on my property, for example. […] The Flogg Blogg does not have a ‘right’ to free speech where the exercise of that right is being enforced against Google (a company) who is a private actor. In fact, it wouldn't be enforceable against Facebook for that matter. So unless it can be shown that the views contained within the Flogg Blogg are censored after being expressed on a domain owned and controlled by the Flogg Blogg itself, and censorship is conducted by the state, then there is no attack on free speech here. This is a wrong [assertion] in law.

Hinkson addressed the likelihood of Google acting under the instructions of government officials:

In the interesting case of the SLU government putting pressure on google to take down the blog, if there were any evidence of this, then this still would not amount to a violation of Article 10 of the St. Lucia constitution. Only if that pressure gave google no choice other than to remove the blog would there be a violation. But my guess is that google is not beholden to the whims of the St. Lucia government, and it would have to be shown that google would have been significantly affected financially by that pressure.

Hinkson stated that he has advised Sifflet to purchase his own domain name. In the mean time, Sifflet continued his work on a new blog on a different platform and began an attempt to uncover the reasons for the Flogg Blog being taken down.

Interestingly, the blog was restored on the Google platform on September 11. Global Voices got in touch with Sifflet to determine whether he was given any explanation for The Flogg Blog being taken down in the first place. This is what he said:

The email of Sat Aug 31 3:35 am informed me that the blog was deleted for TOS hate [violating Google's Terms of Service concerning hate speech on the Blogger platform]. It was one paragraph, very simple, no warning. By nine the next morning, I had a few calls that ratted out some culprits. One name remained the same and other names kinda changed. But the suspects were all political lawyers and statcorp CEOs – i.e. people who felt attacked by the blog.

By this time, I had already appealed for review through the help forums. But it was discouraging cos I couldn’t get a human response. Just automated response.

Automated response after automated response for days.

But then, a couple of American lawyers came out of the woodwork to bat for me on the other side. And a couple of Lucians had a friend of a friend in Google who might be able to check. The field research over the next few days revealed some surprising things which will take some time to work out.

So Wednesday, afternoon, I think, after I set up the new DIS Flogg and started republishing old Tourist board articles, just to fuck with the people I know fucked with me…Google reinstates the FLOGG with a simple message saying it was like a mistake of an automated scan.

In any case, I drop one story from each blog, just to be a dick and then, SOURCE B at Google calls me for an unofficial source, he sounds really formal and official with me.

‘This was a mistake. It should never have happened. It seems there was a community complaint which should not have been dealt with at the level it was. As a result, your blog has been flagged so that this never happens again. In fact, if there are new complaints, they have to bee forwarded higher up the chain than the regular blog, because of this incident. This was a big mistake. Your blog contains nothing that is hateful or violates free speech. This should never have happened.’

Our conversation went like this for 20 minutes.

All the while, I’m trying to get him to give me transcripts and identities, but he is insisting the same way I have freedom of speech, so do the people who complained and Google guaranteed them anonymity, which means the lawyers who are helping me now have a very well defined assignment on their hands.

Sifflet's story provides an instructive example of a case that pits speech and privacy rights against one another, and of a situation in which further inquiry with the decision-maker (Google, in this case) led to a strong outcome.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2014/09/16/was-popular-saint-lucia-blog-hateful-or-just-outspoken/feed/4Wanted to Watch Saint Lucia's Carnival on TV This Year? You Were Out of Luckhttps://globalvoices.org/2014/07/23/st-lucia-carnival-agency-restricts-live-broadcasts/
https://globalvoices.org/2014/07/23/st-lucia-carnival-agency-restricts-live-broadcasts/#commentsWed, 23 Jul 2014 10:23:57 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=481402

The King and Queen of the Bands competition at St. Lucia's 2013 Carnival; photo by flickr user Addy Cameron-Huff, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

The Carnival Planning and Management Agency's official statement cited loss of revenue as the reason behind the move:

This move serves to bolster the gate receipts of Lucian Carnival’s signature events, which have traditionally aired live on television, and in some instances via web streaming platforms. All shows will, however, continue to be broadcasted live via the festival’s various radio partners.

Carnivals throughout the region are a cultural tradition that harkens back to a pagan festival, initially observed by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans and subsequently adopted by the Catholic Church as the festival of Carne Vale — farewell to the flesh — that was introduced to the Caribbean with the arrival of European plantation owners. Slaves would watch their masters celebrate with extravagant masquerade balls, from which they were excluded, and mockingly imitate their behaviour.

When emancipation came, the former slaves turned the traditional carnival on its head by Africanising it with drums and movement and transforming it into a street festival that has evolved and endured to this day as a unique mix of music and masquerade. Part art, part theatre, carnival is a complex beast that melds fantasy and folklore, pan music with political satire.

In keeping with the Roman Catholic calendar, Carnival Monday and Tuesday are usually celebrated on the days preceding Ash Wednesday, after which all pleasurable indulgences are meant to be forfeited during the 40 days of Lent that follow. Fifteen years ago however, because of the stiff competition from other bigger and more popular events, such as Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, the Saint Lucian government moved the country's carnival celebrations to mid-July in the hope of attracting more tourists.

As this year's Saint Lucian Carnival approached its climax, spectators and media personnel alike took to social media to voice their displeasure about the decision to ban any live coverage of events. Writing on the Facebook group “St. Lucians Aiming for Progress,” Clinton Reynolds was upset and felt that the rationale given for the decision was misguided:

How regressive! Did the organisers consider Saint Lucians in the diaspora, those in other countries and foreigners who might be interested in being part of Saint Lucia Carnival by viewing the competitions as they happen? And what about local fans who are physically UNABLE to attend? I hope that decision shot your gate receipts through the roof!

If the care was about the pocket, believe me they would have considered the live broadcast more seriously because the opportunity for revenue making is huge if done properly. Over the last 3 years the revenue received from this was probably more than $50,000 and from discussions that began last year, the opportunities for increasing were very present.

Looks like we're going in reverse…Somebody is fooling these poor artistes, and making them walk backward instead of moving forward. Right now, nobody from caribana [a huge West Indian Carnival in Toronto], labour day [the big Caribbean parade in New York] or notting hill [an annual Carnival event in London] organising committees seeing you. But you hoping to get a call for gig later. You think machel [Montano, the region's biggest soca star, whose music has become synonymous with Carnival] doesn't understand the importance of a camera and making sure people see him…How you gonna make your name if you don't [get] your image out there.

Nadia Cauzabon made the point that broadcasting the Carnival shows made them more accessible to Saint Lucians, even those on the island:

I've been saying this since last week and I'm not even going to talk about the diaspora. All those ‘national’ events are in the north (Castries/Gros Islet). What about those of us who live in the rest of the island? How many can afford to commute to those shows?

Chad Alexander echoed this point, saying that the idea of events being broadcast could actually make them seem bigger and more attractive. He was also surprised at the weak marketing efforts for the festival, which, to his mind, should have been amped up considering that broadcasting was no longer an avenue with which to promote the carnival calendar:

I don't pretend to know anything about marketing, sales and events but from the point of view of Joe Public, the staging of quality productions accompanied by live broadcast can serve to create that ‘promotional vibe’ that makes people want to be a part of this festival…[the] ‘bandwagonist’ effect. And whether we realise it or not, it actually serves the dual role of marketing for next year's events. With live broadcasting, some st. lucian somewhere will make plans to make next year's carnival…and encourage their non st. lucian friends to come along.

With all the technological options available these days, though, could there be another option? One Facebook user from the diaspora, Kermz Francis, suggested that Saint Lucia's Carnival could have had its cake and eaten it too, had the festivities been pay-per-view: “There is merit in both sides of the argument but I see no harm in just charging a fee for people who want to view the shows live.”

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2014/07/23/st-lucia-carnival-agency-restricts-live-broadcasts/feed/2West Indies Cricket Gets a New Leader, But What About the Board?https://globalvoices.org/2014/05/16/west-indies-cricket-gets-a-new-leader-but-what-about-the-board/
https://globalvoices.org/2014/05/16/west-indies-cricket-gets-a-new-leader-but-what-about-the-board/#commentsFri, 16 May 2014 13:51:41 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=470673There have been big changes of late in West Indies Cricket. The West Indies Cricket Boardannounced that Dinesh Ramdin was going to replace Darren Sammy as captain of the test team. Sammy quickly expressed his support for the new captain:

Congrats to Ramdin on being name test Captain. God's speed brother as u look to take us forward. Thanks to all for the support.

He subsequently revealed that he was going to retire from test cricket (Sammy will, however, continue to play the shorter versions of the game and retains his captaincy of the T20 squad, in which two opposing teams each play a single innings with 20 overs). Fans immediately reacted to the news:

Much of the online discussion turned to the modus operandi of the West Indies Cricket Board and how the players would have received the news of their new roles. This Twitter user noted that Sammy's fate was better than that of past West Indies captains:

In 2001, Jimmy Adams lost the West Indies captaincy and his Test pick. He was told by a TV reporter.

It [doesn't] matter who is the captain of the west Indies team, the results still going to be the same. But Sammy really should [have] resigned a long time ago because it's very disrespectful how he is getting treated now, he [lost] the [captaincy] for both tests and [one day internationals] and he damn well [knew] it would have happen[ed] eventually.

Great, you should have told the Board thanks after what they did last year. It was on the cards, that is how the Board operates when they want to get the rid of a player. What do you expect, too much politics involve in the cricket.

He added that T20 cricket now allows players to make a living without depending on the national boards:

Go and play IPL all over the world and ply your trade as a 20/20 player, you are in great demand. Make some money while you can and invest it wisely. At least you will not be like some who were before you and waste it. You have been to the top as a player, many before you did not achieve that goal as captain of the West indies team.

True talk, Ramdin did fairly well captaining Trinidad and Tobago and is more than capable of captaining the WI team, we need to stop bringing down the WI and start praising them up, selectors have pick[ed] a good training squad that is capable of beating the Kiwis and they [are] gonna pick the best 11 that can do the job.

I have enjoy[ed] seeing West Indian players, including Sammy, improve over the years. I wish the WICB would make better use of their players and invest [in] them. We always look at the players first but not at management when it comes to the plight of the team in all formats of the game. What are the other cricketing boards doing right that the WICB has failed to learn to this day? Thanks for your service Sammy.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2014/05/16/west-indies-cricket-gets-a-new-leader-but-what-about-the-board/feed/1Race as a Political Weapon in the Caribbeanhttps://globalvoices.org/2014/02/17/race-as-a-political-weapon-in-the-caribbean/
https://globalvoices.org/2014/02/17/race-as-a-political-weapon-in-the-caribbean/#commentsMon, 17 Feb 2014 17:35:35 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=457719

Of all the offensive – and unintelligent – statements made in the politics of the post-independence Caribbean, an assertion, that Dr Keith Rowley, the leader of the Opposition in Trinidad and Tobago, is ‘too black’ to be Prime Minister, has to rate as the worst.

Bajan Reporter explains why such a notion “highlights the continuing insecurities in persons and groups in the Caribbean.”

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2014/02/17/race-as-a-political-weapon-in-the-caribbean/feed/1Carnival Love Songs From the Caribbeanhttps://globalvoices.org/2014/02/14/carnival-love-songs-from-the-caribbean/
https://globalvoices.org/2014/02/14/carnival-love-songs-from-the-caribbean/#commentsFri, 14 Feb 2014 19:13:36 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=457200The celebration of Valentine's Day in many Caribbean territories is usually overshadowed by Carnival, so the Global Voices Caribbean team thought it might be fun to marry the two concepts – pun intended. A few of us have chosen our favourite soca love songs, along with a few lines as to why we think they're appropriate for V-Day…

The lyrics perfectly capture the unspoken Carnival rule that it's okay to “‘tief a wine” – parlance that means all dancing in the spirit of the festival is fair game…because it's only for a moment and all in good fun:

There's no reason to take off the wedding ring
This is the season for the wining
The only thing you could make me take off tonight is meh shirt
‘Cause all I wanna do is flirt…with no strings attached
When ah hold on, ah go wine like dat
That sweet wok nah bother me
It doh make me guilty…

Jason explains:

In Trinidad and Tobago, there is a popular song that says ‘A little wine (dance) never hurt nobody’. To me that's something that's uniquely Trinidadian, that we can enjoy each other's company and flirt good-naturedly.

Author Matthew Hunte, who hails from St. Lucia and is known for his dry wit, says:

I think Valentine's Day is treacly and saccharine so this is the obvious choice…

Baron‘s This Soca is for You epitomizes the poetic Valentine's Day sentiment, which is made even richer – or more predictable, depending on where you stand on the sentimentality tolerance scale – by the singer's melodic vocals, which slip off his tongue as slowly and as sweetly as molasses:

From the moment I saw you I know we were meant to be
From then on to this day there's no regrets
There's no-one else in this world to spend this life with me
So to you, I pay all my respects
God bless the day that I found you, baby
With you by my side and your love to guide me
Honey, baby, doux doux…this soca is for you

Of course, I had to put in my two cents’ worth – and because Jason already covered flirtation and Matt made his case for romantic love – I thought I'd go for love of Carnival – and nothing says that for me like David Rudder's ode to Calypso music:

Can you hear a distant drum bouncing on the laughter of a melody?
And does the rhythm tell you ‘come, come, come, come'?
Does your spirit do a dance to this symphony?
Does it tell you that your heart is afire?
And does it tell you that your pain is a liar?
Does it wash away all your unlovely?
Well, are you ready for a brand new discovery?
Calypso, calypso, calypso music…

Isn't that what love – at least the highest form of it – is supposed to do? It's meant to be transformative, to make you better, more joyous, to bring you closer to who you really are. In the Caribbean, our love of Carnival gets us pretty close. Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Compton received massive support over Twitter via the hashtags #TeamNina, #TeamGreenFigAndSaltFish, #Team758 and #NinaNation. Some users of the microblogging service voiced their displeasure with her second place finish, but most were more concerned about congratulating her on her success:

So #topchef choose someone who can cook spam and inconsistent over two ladies who showed them what being brilliant chefs are

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2014/02/14/st-lucian-chef-nina-compton-still-the-peoples-champ/feed/0PHOTOS: Christmas Flooding in the Eastern Caribbeanhttps://globalvoices.org/2014/01/10/caribbean-dominica-saint-lucia-st-vincent-and-the-grenadines/
https://globalvoices.org/2014/01/10/caribbean-dominica-saint-lucia-st-vincent-and-the-grenadines/#commentsFri, 10 Jan 2014 11:56:53 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=449119On Christmas Eve several islands in the Eastern Caribbean, including Dominica, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, were affected by a tropical wave that resulted in several hours of rainfall, severe flooding and over a dozen deaths.

Many people were trapped and stranded because they were making last minute preparations for Christmas celebrations.

Saint Lucia, which still bears the scars from Hurricane Tomas in 2010, saw extensive flooding and the destruction of several bridges in the south-west of the island, isolating some communities. At least five deaths were reported, including one police officer who died in the course of a rescue effort.

A section of the Anse Ger Road in Saint Lucia collapsed

Terminal of the Hewanorra International Airport in Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia

In the online group St. Lucians Aiming for Progress, several people, particularly from the diaspora, organized to send relief to those in need. Many questioned the public information (or the lack thereof) relayed by the National Emergency Organization and the Meteorological Office prior to the storm.

Martinique's Met Office denies radar malfunction; St. Lucia's Met Office denies radar malfunction …….. But some Lucians deny incompetence. The Lord cannot help us with that! NEMO must answer for what they told the nation, not to mention the chaotic/non-response to guiding and coordinating the nation's response to the disaster.

Ananias Verneuil wondered if the fact that the storm came outside of the recognized hurricane season (June to November) could explain the response:

In my opinion this system came after normal hurricane season and therefore it was not considered to be cyclonic. In this regard, we all were caught with our pants down. It was a trough that contained unusual amount of rainfall that could not have been estimated before the down pour.

Now I beginning to find yall real rude and outta place to expect NEMO and the Met Office to be working on Christmas Eve! Don't you'll know Christmas week everyting in government shut down. Yall actually expect government employees to be working?? The ppl must have been out on their shopping day you'll deh stressing the ppl with a stupid little upper level trough. Yall really expecting a lot!! So what if the whole country washes out to sea, it's Christmas and u dun know how tings run in St Lucia.

How did the other islands fare? Did they receive adequate notification? Were they prepared? What, if any, was the impact if they did receive adequate notice? This not an attempt to absolve NEMO or any other agency responsible for alerting the public. With enough notice people in flood prone areas can be persuaded to move to higher ground, companies can elevate their sensitive gear above known flood levels and cover same with damp-proof material. etc, etc. pre- Disaster mitigation procedures can be initiated. Like the island all utilities should have a disaster plan and execute regular disaster drills.

Runway of the Hewanorra International Airport.

The Piaye Bridge in the Southwest of Saint Lucia was washed away.

Part of the Vieux Fort highway,which had been originally been constructed as part of a U.S. base in the 1940s, collapsed

Gas Station in Bexon

House in Bexon

Flood damage in Bexon

Canaries Bridge , part of Saint Lucia's West Coast Highway, was washed away.

In St. Vincent, initial reports were that eight people (including children) died as a result of the storm, with some people still being reported as missing. The storm damage was particularly severe in the North Leeward region of the island. According to media reports, the E.T. Joshua Airport and the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital were both surrounded by water. The Grenadines escaped serious damage.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2014/01/10/caribbean-dominica-saint-lucia-st-vincent-and-the-grenadines/feed/1The Caribbean Ponders the Legacy of Nelson Mandelahttps://globalvoices.org/2013/12/12/the-caribbean-ponders-the-legacy-of-nelson-mandela/
https://globalvoices.org/2013/12/12/the-caribbean-ponders-the-legacy-of-nelson-mandela/#commentsThu, 12 Dec 2013 00:21:16 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=446936With nearly a week gone since the announcement of Nelson Mandela's death, Caribbean bloggers have had time to process their thoughts on his life and his legacy.

St. Lucia-based Caribbean Book Blog noted that the island joined the international community “in celebrating the life of one of the world’s most beloved and revered leaders”:

Among the many virtues for which Nelson Mandela will be remembered is the way in which he was able to transcend politics, race and class, and recast himself in the role of a sagacious elder and father figure to all and sundry, even other political leaders and heads of state…

Nelson Mandela, photo by Festival Karsh Ottawa

The post recalled Mandela's 1998 visit to St. Lucia, to attend the 19th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community:

Mandela’s humility, grace and charisma were evident…During the visit [he] attended a youth rally hosted in his honour. In his typically warm, affectionate style he charmed the youths and embraced them as they came up to greet him. Dispensing with protocol, he laughed and danced with them. He then offered them some inspiring words of wisdom and encouraged them to use education as a tool to become leaders. He urged them not to be discouraged by poverty.

The blog also reiterated Mandela's agreement with the notion that CARICOM has been at the forefront of the apartheid struggle; it ended by quoting Mandela's parting words to the St. Lucian people:

‘St Lucia is one of the most beautiful places I’ve visited. Its beauty is breathtaking. I know that one day I will die for a very, very long time but visiting St Lucia seems to guarantee to me that it will take some time before death prevails over me.’
He uttered those words in all seriousness. Fifteen years later they seem to have been quite prescient.

I remember vividly walking around my house singing ‘Free them President Botha’ the song that as a kid I was taught as part of the ‘struggle against apartheid’. Quick history Botha was the head of South Africa in the 80s and his government kept up a brutal crack down on Mandela, his ANC brethren and blacks in general. It has always bothered me that Botha was able to live out his life without ever going to prison – I really believe he should have died in prison, just as many of us feared Mandela would. To my knowledge Botha never apologized for apartheid, I find that hard to stomach but if Mandela could forgive him…maybe I should.

He also hoped that more young people would learn about Mandela's struggle:

Nelson Mandela always struck me as a man of poise, graciousness and strength of character, I sadly do not think enough of today's youths know who he is and honor and respect him enough. Hopefully his death, like much of his early life will renew in young black youth a sense of purpose a sense of internal pride and maybe just maybe a moment of deep reflection.

If you or I were imprisoned unjustly for 27 years, much of it in solitary confinement, as Nelson Mandela was, we’d probably come out bitter and hellbent on exacting revenge on those responsible.

In the UK in the late 1970s, when I was in my teens and early 20s, many of my generation were seething at that injustice and the evils of the South African government’s apartheid system. Indeed, at a time when the right-wing National Front was on the rise, we were pretty worked up about racism in general. If we weren’t taking part in Free Mandela marches or concerts, then it was an Anti-Racism or Anti-Nazi League rally. We vilified those businesses or sportsmen who broke government sanctions and went to South Africa.

But if we believed that Nelson Mandela would one day be released, I don’t think any of us would have predicted that he would become the country’s first black President and that instead of spearheading the ANC in bloody retribution against their oppressors, he would lead an astonishing and courageous reconciliation that helped heal a bitterly divided nation and avoid almost certain civil war.

Nelson Mandela was already a hero of mine before he left prison. His dignity and humility after his release made him, in my eyes and those of millions of others, the greatest human being of our lifetime whose ideals and integrity put every other statesman in the world to shame.

There were many other South Africans who viewed Madiba differently, as I found out when I finally got to visit the country in 2010 for the World Cup…As far as Frankie, the tough white lady who ran the guest house just outside Johannesburg where we stayed, was concerned, Mandela was still
‘a bloody terrorist’. Having grown up in a racist family and been violently assaulted in her own home by black criminals, Frankie feared and distrusted all blacks, viewed the ANC government as corrupt crooks and believed South Africa was going to hell in a hand basket.

The blogger, Chris Gibbons, was careful to note that:

Mandela’s Rainbow Nation is an incredibly complex country where racial and tribal divisions will take generations to heal, if at all, and the gap between the manicured wealthy suburbs and the grinding poverty of the townships remains jaw-droppingly vast.

But what Mandela did was to start South Africa on that journey, to offer hope where none existed and show that by working together and putting aside their differences, people can achieve truly remarkable things.

The best way to honour Mandela – the myth if not the man – is to renew the commitment to building a better world and launching a second liberation struggle.

This next liberation struggle is as relevant to Bermuda, the Caribbean and everywhere as it is in South Africa.

This second liberation struggle must overcome the covert and structural racism which still haunts our lands and even at a global level; it must also be a struggle against the colonialism of the mind, of colonial mentalities.

Even more, this second liberation struggle must be against a socio-economic system – capitalism – that threatens to consign whole generations and populations to the dust-heap, that thrives on war and that poisons our very planet, all in the pursuit of profit and not in the pursuit of realising our human potential.

Madiba leaves as a legacy a master class of how to do politics in difficult times.

The current statesmen should take note. Mandela was not perfect. He was labeled a communist and disruptive, and until 2008 the FBI had him on their list of ‘terrorists.’ But he knew how to maneuver in the turbulent waters of a nation where state racism prevailed, in the intrigues of his party, the African National Congress, and to achieve the miracle of national unity in South Africa.

The colossal undertaking began in jail. From a cell in Robben Prison, where for 27 years he was behind bars, until 1994 when Madiba became president, he understood that in conditions of political fragility, his mission was to make sure that everyone saw themselves represented in the first democratic government of their country.

He was a president for all South Africans.

In his five years in office, Mandela sat chair of his magnificent policy. His ethics, honesty, and transparency were his hallmark. He was a partner of one and all, without ever compromising his political perspective. A man of diplomacy and respect for others.

His great friend in the Americas, Fidel Castro, retired from power, could also learn some lessons in transparency from Mandela’s conduct.

No one can doubt the sincere friendship that joined Castro with Madiba. But the two statesmen are nothing alike in their methods of achieving national harmony. If Fidel Castro had been like Nelson Mandela, he long ago would have been sitting at the table to negotiate with his political opponents.

First he would have visited with the dissidents. Then with the White House. If Mandela had been Castro, the embargo would be ancient history. That ability of Mandela’s — to adapt to changing times and live with democratic rules — is something the former Cuban president does not have.

In Cuba we would have needed a Nelson Mandela.

Diaspora blog Capitol Hill Cubans agreed that despite the friendship between the two, “Fidel Castro is the anti-thesis of everything that Mandela represents”:

Castro himself heads an undemocratic, apartheid regime.

However, to Castro's chagrin, upon being democratically-elected as President of South Africa, Mandela rejected everything Castro stood for.

Mandela could have taken the path of Castro or Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. He could have become ruler-for-life, confiscated the nation's vast wealth and made it his personal fiefdom.

Yet, Mandela chose the path of human rights, free markets and representative democracy. Moreover, he refused to serve more than one-term.

HaitiRozo called Mandela the leader that “brought the world together” and The Haitian Blogger posted a poem that urged readers to remember Mandela as he was, because the struggle still continues.

Trinidadian diaspora blogger Afrobella wrote a hopeful post, structured around some of Mandela's most famous quotations, which suggested ways in which all of us can live a life more like Nelson Mandela's:

We have lost one of the world’s greatest. We have lost a man who changed the world. We have lost one of the most iconic human beings, a living symbol of freedom and hope and the power of change. The weight of that loss cannot be understated.

He was a troublemaker for peace. He achieved so much and inspired so many. Now that he has passed, we can only pray that he rests in peace and power, and that his life’s legacy will continue to be one of inspiration, greatness and equality for all.

In the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death, I can’t help but consider the ways we could live up to such a legacy. Mandela’s shoes are so big, you might wonder what a regular person could do to fill them. I say, measure your life in terms of your intentions and your steadfastness, and celebrate Mandela’s legacy by speaking out for what’s right, leading by example, and sticking to your ideals.

[The Principal] believes that if he allows this…long haired boy, who never did anything wrong at the school, to enter the classroom, then chaos will prevail…[but] by resisting the simple, inevitable change, HE is falling into the trap of the being the agent of Chaos.

The FLOGG BLOGG is incensed over the unconstitutional behaviour of his Alma Mater.

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2013/09/20/st-lucia-hairs-the-issue/feed/0The Politics of Language in St. Luciahttps://globalvoices.org/2013/08/07/the-language-of-politics-in-st-lucia/
https://globalvoices.org/2013/08/07/the-language-of-politics-in-st-lucia/#respondWed, 07 Aug 2013 11:41:20 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=428295In Saint Lucia, the election of former Tourism Minister Allan Chastanet as political leader of the opposition United Workers Party has brought issues of language, culture and class to the fore.

The discussion could broaden out and have a better context perhaps if it took on board a few FACTS: (1) that Kweyol is an international language – Martinique, Guadeloupe, Cayenne, Dominica, Haiti, Seychelles, Mauritius and among small sections of the population in Trinidad, Grenada and Venezuela (someone also told me Brazil but i've never verified that); (2) that in terms of number of speakers, it is second in the Caribbean – after Spanish; (3) that all languages – English included – begin as purely oral and take on the component of literacy to the extent that the society responds to the initiative, from whatever source, to popularise literacy in it. Wales is an outstanding example. No one else in the word speaks Welsh, so it is not an international language. And a generation ago, it was considered a dying language. Now, due to the initiative to systematise and teach the writing system, written Welsh is everywhere: road signs, newspapers, textbooks etc. And not at the expense of English either. In fact, there's the unusual phenomenon of the younger generation being fluent and literate in the language that some parents cannot speak, much less write. And i'm not writing of what i've heard or read, but what i've seen. There's a far better case for this happening with Kweyol than there was for Welsh. The reasons it's not happening has much more to do with our pathetic, second-hand U$A notions of development than anything else.

Personally I think a person putting themselves up to be prime minister of Saint Lucia should be fluent in patois. There are many folk in our the nation who are functionally illiterate in English. While they may understand a few basic sentences in English, complex ideas expressed in English are beyond them. They are usually left in the dark when leaders only communicate in English. This is why in 1997 the Labour Party changed the rules of parliament to include creole as well as a means of communicating when doing the people's business on their behalf especially when they could now listen and watch, a thing they could not do before and a significant number of persons were left in the dark. Do we really want to go back to those days?

If you come across anyone who can't understand English and only understands Kweyol; they are still doomed to the knowledge level of basic english as the kweyol that they know does not capture the complex issues that you referred to. For example, if your grand dad does not understand the word ‘computer’ and does not understand what it is in english, he would not know it in Kweyol as his kweyol vocabulary would not have a word for it.

So the people whom you all claim can only understand kweyol would still be lost as there are (sic) quite bit that you can't translate to them in the kweyol that they know, not the new kweyol vocab that only the readers of english know.

I don't think this is all about whether Mr. Chastenet can speak/understand/ Kwéyòl. I think more of it has to do with whether he has the experiences that would have allowed him to speak (or at least understand) that language. Now if he has not been exposed to the experiences that allows a person to become a Kwéyòl speaker I think it would be extremely difficult for him to understand the lives of Kwéyòl speakers. If he has the experience but chose not to learn the language then that may well be saying something else – he is either unable to learn [languages] quickly or he is condescending – I don't think either of these augers well for him.

Dolor continued:

The Corollary of what I have offered is that even if Mr. Chastenet were to take crash courses in speaking Kwéyòl he would still be handicapped without an ability to understand the experiences that would have shaped the lives of the Kwéyòl speaker. Why should we have a leader who is incapable of empathizing with a significant portion of the electorate?

Sigh, this ‘can the white Saint Lucian man speak patios’ argument is a very pointless argument. I know MANY people, MANY PEOPLE who are black Saint Lucians and cannot speak more than patois cuss words. How many northern kids can speak a word in Patois?Juk bois has on occasion, gotten upset with his guests for not being able to speak patois! For me, the important issue is whether AC can identify with the circumstances, realities and challenges of the people he seeks to represent. If no, and if that is critical, then what of the argument that persons who did not hail from a community cannot or should not run that constituency in an election? I thought the reason for the latter was that those persons did not know the people or could not identify with them. Lastly, I think the unability of AC to speak fluent patois is excellent. It has placed an important cultural issue on the front burner. But if speaking creole is integral to our claim to true lucianism, then shouldn't we ALL be able to? And if Chastanet decides to take classes, what of the other black Saint Lucians who can't speak patois? Also, if AC learns Patois, would that then satisfy our requirements for representation? I see this as a case of be careful what you wish for!

You don't necessarily have to be poor to empathize wii (sic) people and most importantly work to change things, you don't have to speak patois for your message to get across. Less talk, show me what you have done and a plan for what you can do. And a PM is not a standalone figure, let the reps go out to their constituents passing along the message in whatever ‘language’ bet (sic) suited but again it's…in the doing. Anyone with a platform can promise anything but shoe (sic) me results and then we have reason to talk. And results can be understood in any and every ‘language’.